THIS IS STUPENDOUS NEWS. IT VALIDATES WHAT HOWARD GRIEF, ELI HERTZ AND TED BELMAN AND OTHERS HAVE BEEN WRITING AND SAYING FOR YEARS
It should be noted that the ICJ, in its deliberations on the fence, held the land to be occupied territory pursuant to the FGC. But that was only an advisory opinion. Israel’s High Court, in its hearings on the fence, asked the Governments lawyers what law to apply I.e., occupation law or Israel law. The lawyers said they were instructed to advise the Court that Israel held the land in “belligerent occupation”. So the Court used occupation law without deciding the matter. This Report flies in the face of the UN, the US and the EU who argue settlements are illegal or illegitimate. Ted Belman
Judea and Samaria are not under occupation rule. This is the central finding of the “Outposts Committee” which was appointed to examine the legal status of Israel in Judea and Samaria, according to the daily Makor Rishon. The committee members, former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, Circuit Judge Techia Shapira and jurist Dr. Allan Baker, this week have concluded the writing of their report which suggests adopting a new and old judicial framework regarding Israel’s status in Judea and Samaria.
The committee analyzed the historic and legal background of Judea and Samaria and concludes that the belligerent occupation approach must be discarded as reflecting Israel’s status in those areas. According to the committee’s approach, Judea and Samaria were in a judicial vacuum before the Six Day War. The reason was that the Kingdom of Jordan, which held those territories, did so against the rule of international law, and its sovereignty over them was recognized solely by Great Britain. Since Jordan was not the legal sovereign, the report argues, the territories cannot be defined as occupied in the legal sense of the word.
In addition, the committee offers a string of arguments showing that Israel itself has a legal connection to those territories, which is another reason why it is not an occupier.
The 90 page report, including addenda, discusses at length the issue of the outposts. Levy, Baker and Shapira fundamentally reject the legal line used by Attorney Talia Sasson in her report on the outposts. To their understanding, the vast majority of outposts can be defined as legal, since they are within the master planned areas of legal settlements whose establishment was approved by the government.
The committee further recommends that the Nature and Parks Authority declare thousands of acres in the Judea and Samaria as national parks, to facilitate the preservation of their environmental resources.
With the conclusion of the committee’s work the ball returns to the court of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Justice Minister Ne’eman, who ordered the report. Prior to the committee’s appointment the Attorney General informed Netanyahu that the judiciary is not obligated to follow its conclusions. Netanyahu told committee members that he wishes to read the report before deciding on his next steps.
The next phase is expected to include bringing the report before the Ministers Committee on the Settlements, but the main question remains whether Netanyahu and Ne’eman will be able to force the judiciary system to adopt its recommendations.
It should be noted that committee members belong to Israel’s judicial elite. Chairman Edmond Levy was considered unique among Supreme Court justice in his sensitivity to social issues. Techia Shapira is a sitting Circuit Judge in Tel Aviv. Dr. Allan Baker is an expert on international law and served as legal consultant to the foreign office. Among other things, he participated in formulating the Oslo Accords.
Thnx, Bland. Now why didn’t I think of that? 😉
I don’t actually mind abbreviations all that much as long as I know (or can find out) what they mean.
@ AJ – Raalte:
I believe that what is referred to is the “Fourth Geneva Convention”; but I agree, AJ — abbreviations suck.
WTF does FGC mean, apart from Female Genital Cutting? I tried to google it and that’s mainly what I got.
Can someone please explain?
Now WHAT? –
Can we really expect the government to change policies in response to this?
They will send the report for further study.
Or ignore it.
Or claim foreign “pressure” to continue as usual.
Their list of excuses and strategies to continue full-speed ahead implementing their leftist agenda of empowering Arabs and shrinking Israel is too long.
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This is the same government that in the face of
1) Unremitting terror after expulsion of Jews and UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL from Gaza
2) The SURRENDER of Sinai, the expulsion of Jews, and a PEACE TREATY with Egypt in tatters….
…in a show of total contempt for the Jews of Israel – it continues to pursue the surrender of Jewish territory and the signing another peace treaty with the PA Arabs.
Israeli Jews are being played with.
There is no democracy in Israel.
Until the majority of Israeli Jews ORGANIZE outside their political parties so as to exercise at least a part of the power that they were tricked into handing over to that leftist minority and the fake-right wing poodles, there is NO CHANCE AT ALL that the elite will bother to even listen to you.
WHILE EVERYONE TALKS, THE GOVERNMENT IS BUSY EMPOWERING ARABS AND ALLOWING THEM TO CREATE FACTS ON THE GROUND.
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So while Jews cheer for an attack on Iran’s nukes, they don’t notice how the government has been using that issue to distract them from the fact that it’s not fighting the war at home.
There is a war against Jews right now in Israel and IDF and police are following orders to stand back and do little or nothing. Jews are being attacked by Arabs everywhere, with impunity.
Latest:
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As you can see, unless Jews realize that their political parties are useless and join an independent and strong organization to at least be heard, the process weakening Jewish Israel will continue unabated.
You can’t trust your political leaders to protect you anymore. They have failed miserably in the past. And they are failing you now.
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You gave your power away, and this is the result.
Get organized!
Trust me, this is monumental.
@ Bill Narvey:
No, Israel doesn’t have such a law. You misunderstood. The lawyers told the court that Israel were occupiers according to the FGC. Thus the court used occupation law as defined by the FGC. Usually the law of the land. Even that is complicated because of the illegal annexation by Jordan.
All the presumed legalities of the status of Shomron and Yehuda are just gornish (is that the right Yiddish expression for these situations, Yamit?) unless and until the political leadership of Israel determines to annex at least Area C, then starts laying plans for a permanent Jewish Israeli future in the remaining parts of the territories, then takes action to effectuate all this.
Otherwise, what Stanley writes about “blowin in the wind” best describes all this talk.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Does Israel have a belligerant occupation law? I thought such law was in the realm of international law. If so, then it is for a state to take a position, not the judiciary. Where two states have competing claims to land or rights, it is not for one state’s judiciary to decide, but for the ICJ to deal with.
correction of above. 7 million should read 7 billion.
@ Ted Belman:
You are right- but first get the rest of the world on board. Otherwise we are all just “blowin in the wind”. For your information there are now some seven million people (pop of the globe) that need convincing. Go to it!!
@ BlandOatmeal:
Right on.
The report seems to speak the truth, namely, that Judea and Samaria are not “occupied territories” because (1) no other country legally occupied them prior to the Israeli conquest, and (2) Israel has a legitimate claim to them as part of the Mandate to build a Jewish homeland in them. These are true facts, and the same holds for the Gaza strip. It is certainly good that SOMEONE in the Israeli government recognizes these obvious truths. Once the Israelis themselves get their heads together on this matter, they will be able to deal with a hypocritical world that refuses to acknowledge the truth. In fact, I believe that once the Israelis themselves confidently acknowledge that they are, in fact, the rightful rulers of all Israel, the opinions of the rest of the world will be shown to be irrelevant. That is because the rest of the world is rapidly descending into a hopeless quagmire of its own making.
Israel belongs to the Jews. The Balfour Declaration says so; the Mandate agreement says so, and, lo and behold, even God says so. What continues to amaze me, is the fact that so many Jews refuse to see this.
Since the Israel High Court has never deliberated on the matter, the GOI is free to embrace this report. There is no valid reason not to do so. Then in the next court hearing the GOI should argue fhat the FGC does not apply and that we have a variety of rights to J&S. The Courts will then have to decide.
@ Dennis Cast:
The Palestinians are false, their claim to statehood is false, it is not Occupied land nor palestinian land.
Your understanding is way off.
In 1949 Judea and Samaria were illegally occupied by Jordan and all Arabs east of the greenline became Jordanian citizens.After the ’67 war Jordan was booted out leaving the present situation. Res 242 required Israel to withdraw from territroties and not “all territories”. In the late eighties, Jordan gave all its rights under R242 to the PLO. In the mid nineties, Israel entered the Oslo Accords with the PLO but these accords didn’t offer the Arabs a state. The two sate solution was forced upon Israel by the US in the Roadmap of 2003.
That should bring you up to date. Anything to the contrary is BS from the Arab , the US, the UN and the EU.
Mr. Belman-This is somewhat new to me. The question today is not that Jordan claims that Samaria and Judea are their territories occupied by Israel but that Samaria and Judea are “Palestinian”(non-existant national idenity)ocupied by Israel or have I been confused by Palestinian rhetoric??? Israel attempted to allow the Palestinians there a deal in 1967 after the six day war but the “Palestinians” thru the deal back in Israels face with an “all of the land or nothing attitude”. Today most maps made by the “Palestinians” show the entire nation of Israel as “occupied” futher complicating the issue if you accept anything they claim to be automaticly true. (which is what they want.) What to call legal is beyond me because Isreal has attemped to withdraw from J&S but has some security forces there by necesity because of the constant violence that camme out of that area. i.e the Palestinians have more or less punished Israel for their attemp to make this conseccion with that same violence one result was “The fence” which also irks the Palestinians because they cannot randomly attack Israel. I cannot give you what legal or illegal occupation means since so much smoke and mirrors is used by the Arab side. If I were to give advice to Israel I would tell them to use the military to throw the Palestinians out. The “3 no’s” are enough for me to say that Israel has no need to make concessions after the idea itself was refuted by those that rest of the world wants Israel to make peace with. In fact the idea of peace itself was refuted by the Palestinians in the issueing of the “3 nos” . Israel put its best foot forward after the six day war. What else is there to do? Everything after that seems to me very convoluted and mere talking in circles.
The issue is not whether Netanyahu will be able to force the judiciary to adopt the report’s findings, as is stated in the article, but whether or not the report has enough teeth to force Netanyahu not to be a traitorous snake to the Jewish People any longer.